Students have different rules for fair use than teachers. Students can, of course, only use a legal amount of a work as long as the properly cite the source. The legal amount of a work that can be used is different depending on the type of media. When using movie clips or other types of “motion media”, up to ten percent of the total media or thirty seconds can be used. Whether one uses ten percent or thirty seconds is not up to that person, they have to use whichever is less. When using “text media”, for example information from a book or newspaper, a student can only use up to one thousand words or ten percent. (http://dpi.state.nc.us/copyright1.html)
Fair use associated with music seems to be the type of media that seems to give students the most trouble. In order to legally use music as a student , one can only use ten percent or up to thirty seconds of the actual music or lyrics. The ten percent or thirty second rule only applies to one piece of music at a time. For example, a student could use thirty seconds or ten percent of more than one song in the same project, as long as they use proper citation.
Citing a Source
As a student, properly citing sources is important, to avoid copyright infringement. In order to do an MLA citation properly, one must make sure that all of the sources they used are in alphabetical order. All lines must be double spaced. The second line must be indented by 5 spaces. The MLA citation must be visible and either attached somehow to the project or in public view. Another way to properly cite a source is to use parenthesis in the text. When using parenthesis in the text it is important to only use critical information. For information out of a book as little as the author’s name and page number are acceptable. It is okay to put the parenthesis at the end of a thought, not at the end of a sentence. Parenthesis should go where there is a naturally occurring pause when reading the information.
Fair Use for Students
Students have different rules for fair use than teachers. Students can, of course, only use a legal amount of a work as long as the properly cite the source. The legal amount of a work that can be used is different depending on the type of media. When using movie clips or other types of “motion media”, up to ten percent of the total media or thirty seconds can be used. Whether one uses ten percent or thirty seconds is not up to that person, they have to use whichever is less. When using “text media”, for example information from a book or newspaper, a student can only use up to one thousand words or ten percent. (http://dpi.state.nc.us/copyright1.html)
Fair use associated with music seems to be the type of media that seems to give students the most trouble. In order to legally use music as a student , one can only use ten percent or up to thirty seconds of the actual music or lyrics. The ten percent or thirty second rule only applies to one piece of music at a time. For example, a student could use thirty seconds or ten percent of more than one song in the same project, as long as they use proper citation.
Citing a Source
As a student, properly citing sources is important, to avoid copyright infringement. In order to do an MLA citation properly, one must make sure that all of the sources they used are in alphabetical order. All lines must be double spaced. The second line must be indented by 5 spaces. The MLA citation must be visible and either attached somehow to the project or in public view. Another way to properly cite a source is to use parenthesis in the text. When using parenthesis in the text it is important to only use critical information. For information out of a book as little as the author’s name and page number are acceptable. It is okay to put the parenthesis at the end of a thought, not at the end of a sentence. Parenthesis should go where there is a naturally occurring pause when reading the information.
A few helpful websites to use when citing a source are:
1. http://www.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/workshop/citmla.htm
2. http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/01/
As a student, why should I care about fair use?